There have been three attacks that the Víznar graves, in Granada, have suffered in recent times, where an investigation team exhumes the bodies of those who were retaliated against by Franco’s regime. The last of them took place this weekend, when in zone number 17 of the Barranco they stole a part of the skull of a shot to steal eleven pieces of gold teeth.
The situation, denounced by this group of experts, complicates the identification of the victim despite the fact that the remains of the attacked skull had already been processed, a fact that has outraged the relatives who have criticized the lack of protection and surveillance in this Place of Memory.
The Civil Guard, which has taken charge of the investigation, has indicated that it will reinforce surveillance although it has indicated that it is not responsible for permanent custody of the remains.
The desecration took place in the common grave where last week ten people were found with their hands tied behind their backs and shot in the head, specifically number 17. It was this morning when the team responsible for the archaeforensic project in Víznar gave an account of the looting. The person in charge filed a complaint with the Benemérita regarding the events whenever the families were informed of the event.
“The identification of the victims is done with the petrosa, the teeth or the femur, and the robbery leaves us without one of the possibilities,” explained the sociologist of the project, Francisco de Asís Carrión Jiménez.
The group, the expert explained, has found that the entire security perimeter that they place around the graves every Friday has been altered (they protect the graves with geotextile, boards and bags to avoid damage due to inclement weather) and upon entering they have verified that the grave number 17 has been desecrated and that in one of the individuals the maxilla and jaw were missing with several gold teeth, facts that have already been reported to the Civil Guard.
This vile robbery, he explained, has not only generated “sadness, indignation and a feeling of vulnerability” in the relatives of the victims, but also greatly harms identification efforts, since the thieves have taken a fundamental part that is usually used in this process such as teeth.
Now, the researchers of this enclave are calling to be able to recover the stolen part of the skull and continue with their work, a task that has been altered by several attacks carried out in recent times, as they explain. At first, during the last campaign, material was stolen. After this event, a relative who was visiting the graves was attacked during his stay and, finally, the robbery this weekend.
Indignation and helplessness have shaken the relatives of the victims of Franco’s regime, who hoped to be able to identify the remains of their loved ones in the common graves of the Barranco. For this reason, they have demanded protection measures so that events like this do not happen again, something that the Civil Guard has committed to carrying out so that this campaign takes place normally.